Out of Time
by Itskatchoo
Summary: One night after 5x11 and a few days several years later. A quick look inside that special Peck mind.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: **_This is my first rodeo. I sat down tonight and this came out in 2 hours. It's a bit smutty, don't know where that came from. Though I did hit my head pretty hard today, I hear it can change a person :)_

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><p>Holly's words caused Gail a minor malfunction. The meaning of them together was too much, it was like Gail had to pick each one up and examine its worth.<p>

_'San Francisco'_

_'Two weeks'_

_'Come with me'_

Of course. Of course it would come to this. She'd been playing house in her head for weeks. Her future, like a puzzle for kids aged 4-8; where her piece would slot in satisfyingly next to Holly's smooth edges. Sophie would be the corner piece on her other side, and some warm place with a patio and feature walls would fill in the gaps.

Her cosy puzzle life didn't need logistics, money, or more than 6 pieces. It was built on love.

She let out a hiccup and surprised laugh as Holly's stare waivered and her sad smile began to fade.

Their imaginary future was built on love that Gail hadn't been careful enough to even tell Holly was there. The happy life in her head had never made it past her lips. She'd swirled her love for this woman through her brain, around her heart and had let it dance with the butterflies in her stomach. She'd thought it had escaped through her eyes, through her anxious distance, through her irrational tantrums. It had not.

Now a different puzzle was forming. Equally as simple but stark in its logic. How could Holly not know Gail needed her here? How could Holly walk out on her? And Sophie? And their place with a patio? Easy. Gail hadn't put any of the pieces together for her. To Holly their whole thing, entanglement, devastating connection, was a hot mess. A mess of raw need, pointed comfort and bouncing knots of unhinged emotion.

Pipes protested loudly as someone turned on a shower in the distance. With the screech and a clang, a wave of panic hit Gail like a cold slap. There, in the wake of Holly's words was the realisation that her laid plans were foundationless.

Gail closed her eyes, twirled her wrists and tried to breathe.

Holly's breath was a shock in her ear. Hands pulled her by her lapels into a tight hug. Lips ghosted up to rest on her forehead.

"We kind of fucked up hey?"

It came out a broken whisper, Gail could hardly hear herself speak.

Holly snorted, "We? Officer Peck, that's cute."

Tears started streaming steadily down Gail's face. She pulled back to wipe her nose unceremoniously on her sleeve and look in Holly's eyes.

"You could tell a girl before you decide to apply for, and then accept a job on the other side of the continent, nerd."

Holly pulled off her glasses to wipe her own eyes. She gave Gail an all too familiar look as she carefully cleared the fog from the lenses with her shirt.

"If I could breathe properly right now, I'd tell you to put those eyes back where they came from." Gail was still whispering, deflated.

Holly continued to look at her, through her, a careful smirk forming. It was a look that said _'Gail, there's an emotionally mature, logical and plausible explanation to this if you bother to look.'_

It was doing its trick. The whirlwind of fear and anxiety she was tumbling in was starting to ease at the edges, even if she still couldn't find her feet.

"Get me out of here before Price sees me like this and starts vomiting rainbows."

Holly laughed and dutifully turned to pick up Gail's bag as the officer darted off through the door, calling behind her,

"I'd never forgive you if that happened, Holly Stewart. Never."

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><p>They had so much to discuss. Gail had her whole heart to lay bare. She had a timer to set for two weeks from now. She had the idea of really, truly and suddenly being a sole parent to contend with. And she had the task of saying goodbye to the only woman she'd ever loved.<p>

Each of those made her want to be sick. She couldn't form the right words. Not now. With this realisation, Gail made Holly pull into the nearest multiplex.

"You're taking me to see something stupid." Gail informed Holly as she fixed her makeup in the passenger side mirror.

"Am I just?"

Holly finished parking and carefully watched Gail's routine, wanting desperately to commit each eyelash, cheekbone and curve of a lip to memory.

Gail paused before re-applying her lipstick. She turned her body, reached across the console and pulled Holly by the neck into a kiss. It was gentle, thorough and ended slowly as Gail's tongue traced Holly's bottom lip. Gail held Holly there, their foreheads touching.

"Gail, we need to talk."

"Look how far not talking has gotten us."

Holly sighed and tried to retreat, Gail held her firmly in place.

"I know," Gail's voice waivered as the uselessness of it all threatened to overwhelm her again, "We will talk ok? I just need this, need us and some popcorn...for now"

Holly rolled her eyes and kissed Gail on the nose.

"Ok, but I am not paying to see the Expendables 3."

Gail laughed as Holly started getting out of the car.

"Seriously Officer Peck, seeing versions 1 and 2 with you was enough for me. They're all cranky old bastards. Can you imagine them making a film about a bunch of women their ages? No. Would not happen."

Gail looked at herself in the mirror one last time before clambering out the door.

"Two words for you girlfriend: Harrison Ford."

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><p>The movie had not helped. Gail spent two hours in the dark restlessly flitting from thought to thought. She pulled some painful truths from the wreckage of her dreams for them both, together.<p>

Holly, she realised, had to leave. At least thirty-seven ways to make her stay had crossed Gail's mind. Some ingenious and a few of questionable legality. But she knew no plan would relieve Holly of the sacrifice if she stayed. It would sit like a weight on their relationship.

Just like no amount of talking could prepare them for imminent parenthood. Or its weight.

As she put these two thoughts together she'd peered at Holly's distracted face in the shadows. The doctor was biting her lip and gazing, unfocused at the screen.

Gail stared and knew she had to let her go. A startling clarity she wished she'd been able to find before this mess. It washed over her, blending with the fear and sadness. And as they all mixed a new feeling grew, quickly, like a fire.

Gail was going to let Holly go. But she wasn't going to let Holly forget.

The need to possess the woman sitting next to her had reached a crescendo as whatever film they were pretending to watch faded to black. The credits started to roll as Gail grabbed Holly and dragged her wordlessly from the cinema.

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><p>Holly could feel the heat of Gail's gaze as they began the car ride home. Something had changed, snapped maybe and it was piercing through her own emotionally drained haze.<p>

She just had to put something out there first, "Gail, just know you are not going to use sex to distract me. I can't even begin to list all of the things we need to talk about. That's how big the list is. It's huge. Bigger than the explosions in that movie. So very very big."

Gail wound the window down and took a gulp of air, "We can talk later," she said as she tried to focus on the passing streetlights instead of Holly's face. Her hands. Her adorable stern demeanour.

Holly stopped the car suddenly and swore under her breath as she reverse parked.

"You are killing me. Without a doubt tonight has been the most emotionally stunted of our relationship so far Gail, and you know what? That's saying a lot. I try to be patient but…"

Holly stopped talking as Gail simply shrugged, opened the car door and got out.

Before Holly could react, Gail had opened the back door and climbed in. Her blue eyes locked on Holly's in the rearview mirror, "Come here."

Holly let out an exasperated sigh and leaned forward to rest her head on the steering wheel.

"Lunchbox, come here."

Holly turned off the ignition, left the driver's seat and gingerly climbed over the console into her back seat. Gail grabbed her halfway through and pulled. Holly found herself sitting with Gail straddling her, staring her down.

"You want to talk?"

Holly didn't know how Gail's whispery voice managed to do the things it did to her. There had to be a scientific explanation. A hypothesis she'd examine at another time.

"Gail."

Gail kissed her way from Holly's forehead around to her ear. Her fists bunched in Holly's shirt.

"I'm going to talk and you're going to listen."

The words in Holly's ears made her shudder.

"Gail, this isn't…"

Gail silenced Holly with a kiss. Holly melted. It was confident, rough, a heated version of the one they shared at the precinct months before.

"Don't say another word. I have enough words for the both of us, ok?"

Holly closed her eyes and nodded. She knew better than to try to push this in another direction. They were both well beyond breaking point.

Gail started a slow grind in Holly's lap.

"There are some things I need you to know."

Gail's voice was somewhere above Holly's head as she sat up to begin another hip curl into Holly's body.

She was down at eye-level now, the pressure in Holly's lap building into something altogether distracting.

"There are three things, are you ready to count?"

"Ye - "

Holly's words got lost in her throat as Gail put a finger to her lips.

"Shhhh, no talking."

Holly smiled and bit the tip of Gail's finger, causing the fire in the blonde's eyes to flash as she ground harder into Holly's lap. Someone moaned.

The pace changed instantly. Holly's shirt was gone and Gail was up out of her lap, pushing her down on her back on the seat. Gail was on top of Holly in another beat, her own shirt discarded as she popped the first button on Holly's pants.

Their eyes met.

"The first thing," she said as she kissed her way down Holly's chest, poised above one breast. "Is that you can run."

Gail bit a bra covered nipple as she unzipped Holly's pants, bypassed her underwear and started tracing her clit through her wetness without preamble.

Holly's eyes slammed shut.

"Seriously baby," Gail had moved onto the other nipple, she gave it a harder, longer bite, "You can run all the way to San Francisco, I'll give you that. Go."

Holly's back arched and Gail used the time wisely to undo her bra. She began massaging where she'd just bitten.

"The second," she said, smiling as she licked down Holly's ribs and removed her fingers, "Is that you can't hide."

With that Gail managed to place a strategic bite on Holly's hip bone while entering her with two fingers. Holly cried out, at the words, at the feeling of Gail inside her, at the building of all she had to let go.

Gail's face was back above hers, watching her, starting a hard rhythm, she licked Holly's neck from her shoulder to her ear before retreating to use the force of her thigh behind each thrust. Holly clawed at the door for something to hold on to.

"You feel this right?" Gail moaned herself, "this is what you can't hide from." Another thrust, another moan, this time from Holly. Gail's pace and power picked up, she added another finger.

"You can run to the west coast. But it won't matter. Every time you drive I'll be there with you, in your backseat. Like this."

Holly whimpered.

"Every time you go to sleep, I'll always be there, above you, just. like. this."

Each thrust was more intense than the last and Holly was getting close, Gail could feel the telltale fluttering against her fingers. She stopped, stilled her fingers inside Holly.

"Ugh fuck, Gail! You're not playing fair!" Holly didn't know whether to laugh or cry. It was all far too much. She reached down and squeezed Gail's arm, willing it to move.

Gail was back, kissing her eyelids. Her cheeks, a tongue in her ear.

"Shhhhh. Don't you want to know the third thing baby?"

Holly tried to resume the rhythm of her hips against Gail but the blonde was having none of it. She stopped, took a breath, looked into Gail's eyes and with as much power as she could muster said, "Tell me."

Gail reached with her fingers inside Holly and started massaging the spot she knew drove the woman crazy. Her thumb sat to the side of Holly's clit, not moving anywhere.

The words were there, ready to spill out. She had Holly's attention. All she needed to do was say,

"I love you." Holly moaned, reached up to grab Gail's face and pull her down into a kiss. It was frantic, sloppy. Gail wasn't finished. She pulled away to speak.

"I love you so much that it doesn't matter where you go. You will always be mine."

Holly was trying desperately to keep it together and failing fast.

"Fuck, I love you too, god damn your timing is terri -"

Gail smothered her words with one last kiss as Holly came undone beneath her.


	2. Chapter 2

**NOTE: **_Decided to continue this. There will be 3 parts in total. I know time jumps can be a cop-out (pun intended) but it's just so much fun. So are puns. Happy reading. Again, written in 2 hours, unbeta'ed, apologies for errors._

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><p><strong>4 YEARS LATER<strong>

Things could have been worse for midday on a Friday. Gail shuffled through the supermarket aisles, an oversized cardigan wrapped around her pajama-like ensemble and a trucker hat atop her bed hair. Today heralded the beginning of a rare three-day weekend. Even more unusual was the fact that she'd be spending it alone.

Gail had risen early to drop a now teenaged Sophie at the airport, bound for a week-long student leadership conference in Washington. Gail never stopped marvelling at Sophie's simmering activism. No one could have paid Gail at that age to admit to caring about anything but stockpiling the largest amount of black nailpolish she could find. That stuff was hard to find. The internet had probably made that particular quest easier by now, she supposed.

These days Gail still took pleasure in the small things, like the opportunity to drive an embarrassed Sophie somewhere while still in her pajamas.

"You want a lift this early, kid? You're lucky I'm even wearing pants."

As always, it was said with a smile and a bear hug, but more and more Gail was having to chase Sophie down the hall before the teen gave in and showed some love.

Now Sophie was off to fix the world one long seminar at a time, and Gail had to begrudgingly admit that she was at a loss. Sophie was her world, and making her so had been surprisingly fluid. Any thoughts of loneliness, of wanting someone to hold her at night, of wanting someone else's world to fall recklessly into were always cut off at the pass by the thought of this kid who needed her.

There was no room to pine. No room to even truly fix the damage done by cutting off all ties with Holly. In some ways Gail had been trying, with little effort, to feel like she once had, before Holly had literally traipsed onto the scene. One late night a few weeks ago Traci had plied her with tequila and gotten her to spill as much. They had their sacred single mom unwinding rituals, but this one had hit deep and meaningful level all too soon.

"The problem with that, Peck," Traci had said with altogether far too much class for their drinking hole of choice, "Is that you assume there is a neutral to get back to. There isn't. You've got to put your hot self into drive and keep on moving."

Gail had brushed it off with some inappropriate comment about dipsticks and oil changes that seemed to make perfect sense at the time. But now, in the harsh light of midday with a basket full of cheese puffs and a three-day weekend to herself, it seemed like something worth quietly pondering.

Gail thought of Holly as she wondered whether she had enough cheesepuffs; a little thought, common and unbidden, of how Holly would have put half the cheesepuffs back and replaced them with something organic. Gail laughed, then scowled as she looked around to see if anyone had noticed.

In the scheme of things, she and Holly hadn't spent much time together at all. No time really. But the woman still annoyingly popped up in her thoughts most days. Gail wasn't one for regrets. She had insisted they cut off ties as soon as Holly left. And no matter how she itched to know what was going on in the other woman's life, to know if Holly ever re-lived the night Gail snapped and possessed her, confessed her love; she never reached out.

The blonde pushed her cap a little higher on her head and fanned her neck. No good to think about any of that any more. With a final guilty glance at the fruit section, Gail headed to the checkouts with her mountains of cheese puffs.

Happy with her own cheap form of cheesy entertainment, Gail walked out to the carpark at her most leisurely pace. One look up from her receipt into the daylight had her heart tripling its beat. Something was happening to her face, she wasn't sure if she was smiling, frowning or staring, slackjawed.

Walking towards her through the sparsely populated carpark was the unmistakable form of one Holly Stewart.

A part of Gail's brain was screaming 'ABORT! ABORT!' but a quick glance proved there was nothing close to make a running leap behind. Another look at Holly's familiar grin and slight head tilt showed Gail that she had already been seen. Gail stopped moving and waited for the collision.

Holly didn't say a word at first, she looked Gail up and down on approach and then used her momentum to sweep her into a hug. Gail's cap popped off her head. Her cheese puff containers rattled against each other in her bags. She couldn't speak or move, but found herself somehow smelling Holly's hair.

Holly broke the silence first, bending to pick up Gail's cap.

"Coyote Ugly Saloon, hey?" Holly placed the cap back on Gail's head and adjusted it carefully.

"It's a fine establishment." Gail mumbled, looking at her feet.

Holly moved one of her hands from Gail's hat to her chin and tilted her head up. Their eyes met and Holly's grin grew.

"New career? What time are you on? I'll bring some requests."

Gail just knew Holly was picturing her in Daisy Dukes, and she was far too flustered to play along. She put her bags down and adjusted her hat unnecessarily, taking a step backwards.

"You wish, nerd."

Holly would not stop smiling at her. Gail could feel the slight tug signalling the start of one of her own. The distance that years had created was evaporating quickly.

_'I can't believe you're here'_ Gail thought.

"What are you doing here?" Gail said.

Holly broke eye contact and looked around nodding.

"I suppose that's a valid question," she said, "and I'll answer it if you tell me what you have in store for all these cheese puffs."

Gail huffed indignantly, "What is this? Twenty questions? I asked first. You don't play fair, Stewart."

Holly stepped into Gail's space and bent slowly to pick up the cheese puff bags. Once she was back at eye-level she looked at Gail's lips, saying softly, "Really? I could have sworn that was your deal."

It would have looked funny, Gail mused later. Holly all bright and laughing, dressed gorgeously in expensive clothes, all but standing over Gail, still in pajamas, having trouble constructing sentences.

But in the moment Gail was far from amused. Years had passed and all it took was Holly's face unexpectedly near her face to turn her into a speechless mess.

"On that note," Holly smirked slowly, "Where is your car?"

Gail closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. Could this actually be happening?

"Come on." Holly chuckled and nudged her. Gail walked ahead, determinedly to her car.

Once they found it, Gail popped the trunk, snatched the bags from Holly, threw them inside, slammed the trunk, and swung back around.

"Well, now we've seen each other, you need to go now, right?"

Holly's smile only grew wider and she shook her head.

"You are still unbelieveable."

"And you won't tell me why you're here." The words left Gail's mouth in a surprisingly frustrated whine.

Holly stepped into her space again and Gail had nowhere to move.

"For all it matters, Gail…" Holly quickly closed all gaps between their bodies, "Right now, I'm here for you."

Gail turned her head away as Holly planted her hands on the trunk by her sides. Holly leaned in for the clincher, direct from her lips to Gail's ear, the sound of her smile permeating each word.

"I'm not even going to be polite about it. Your words, your face, your hands... your love have all been bugging me for years. Turnabout is fair play, honey. I'm here to collect."

It was doubtlessly hot, and infuriatingly presumptuous but also amusing in a warped way to Gail. She tried to regain some of her own space and looked back at Holly, working for all she was worth not to jump the other woman right there.

"Been thinking about this, Lunchbox?"

Holly leaned in and kissed Gail's cheek. She nodded, "Want to know how much?"

Before Gail could react, which may have been at least five minutes if she was honest. Holly grabbed Gail's hand and moved it towards the waistband of her jeans. Their combined fingertips dipped under a bare fraction before Holly was gone, replaced by air.

"You're meeting me in 5 hours at 15 division, Peck." She called, still laughing. Always laughing. When did that happen?

Gail's face contracted into an angry glower, for so many reasons.

"And if I catch so much as a hint of orange cheese puff dust on you, you're going home empty-handed."

"I suppose you want me to shower too?" Gail yelled. But Holly was too far gone, instead an elderly man was pushing a trolley slowly past her.

Gail hopped along to help him pack his car, "Women huh? Jeez." She said to his confused wife waiting by the trunk.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Note: **This is it! The jig is up. Another chapter blurted onto a screen in a couple of hours, and it shall be the last for this one. Thanks for reading!_

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><p>Five hours went surprisingly fast. Admittedly, Gail had spent at least two of them driving in circles and yelling loudly within the safe confines of her car. She yelled nonsense, made weird sounds, wailed at the top of her lungs and scared more than a few pedestrians.<p>

She'd then decided to use her remaining time wisely, by sipping bourbon atop a pile of clothes in her walk-in closet. This closet was her second favourite thing about their little house, first place going to the happy patio, covered in cacti below.

The bourbon helped her realize that she was in shock. That her heart had started a marathon as soon as it had seen Holly's face and it was showing no sign of bowing out. At least she'd stopped shaking.

She hadn't really remembered calling Traci and most definitely didn't hear her letting herself in. But the detective had arrived right in time to kill Gail's buzz and put her in some respectable but cleavage-showing, ass-hugging clothes.

"You've got this, Gail." Traci said as she took a step back to examine her frowning, hot creation.

Gail blew some of her hair out of her eyes, she'd let it grow long again and hadn't cut it all off in a freak-out yet, though the urge was growing.

"Who does she think she is? Just breezing back into my life and refusing to talk?"

Gail tried not to take offence at Traci's giggle. Traci took one look at Gail and changed tack to sincerity very quickly.

"Come on Gail. You know exactly what she's doing. And it's what you've been waiting for, for years now."

Gail's indignance rose, "Nash, there are a million blanks to fill in here. I have no freaking idea what she's doing."

Traci smiled, gave Gail a kiss on the cheek, and spun her around to face the door.

"Ok Peck. Only one way to find out."

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><p>Gail arrived at 15 bang on time. She hadn't even managed to stop the engine when Dov knocked timidly on her window. This was not the time. She shot him her best confuseddisgruntled/don't test me face and wound down the window.

"My computer is fine Epstein, I don't need your help. How many times do I have to tell you?"

Dov scratched his head with one hand, and carefully cradled a folder in the other.

"Well actually, it's not, 24 porn pop-ups at start-up is not system normal for most people, but that doesn't matter right now. Holly said I had to give you this."

Dov slid the file through the window and Gail snatched it.

"Did you look at this?"

Dov could easily imagine her reaching through the window to grab his shirt. He took a step back, "She wants you to meet her at her place, ok?" With that he was off running back inside the building, stopping a few times to look over his shoulder, checking that she wasn't chasing him.

Gail flipped open the folder. It was the same as the ones used in the forensics lab. The first page, sitting neatly on top of a bunch of scrap paper had Holly's messy scrawl inked across it.

"**_Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Meet me here:_**"

The note ended in Holly's old address.

Gail didn't know whether to roll her eyes or cry at the French proverb. So she did a little of both.

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><p>Gail was up and out of her car as soon as she'd parked. She knew if she sat and thought, she'd be sitting and thinking for hours.<p>

She'd passed Holly's house more than a few times over the years. Each and every pass brought with it an unfading whirl of love, loss and reluctant hopelessness. Now, standing here in front of the same red door, expecting to see Holly on the other side again, well it was blowing her mind a little bit.

Gail knocked and instantly she felt like it was four years ago. Here is where she'd stood so many times. But the last time was when they'd said their goodbyes. Ripping off a bandaid didn't come close really. More like hacking off a limb.

Thankfully her despondent reminiscence was interrupted by the door swinging open. Holly was there, not laughing like earlier, maybe slightly anxious, but sporting a huge grin. She reached out and pulled Gail inside by her lapels, slamming the door shut and pushing Gail against it. Her force was balanced by her smile and Gail felt warm as Holly stepped back, still pressing, still grabbing but letting her gaze wander slowly down Gail's body.

For her part, Gail was trying her best to focus her eyes on anything but Holly. Any indulgent linger would almost certainly take up the space she needed in her brain for her train of thought. And that train was carrying four years of questions.

A sudden realisation de-railed Gail's thought train before it had even left the station. Holly's house was decorated in Holly's stuff. It was different but not hugely so. Lived in, no boxes or packing paraphernalia to be seen.

"You live here?" She choked out, not really sure what she'd been expecting.

Holly hummed, smiled cheekily and bit her lip. She stepped forward, taking Gail's hands and trailing them up the surface of the door, holding them above the blonde's head.

Gail tried to breathe.

"Holly please, that talking thing you like so much, we need to do it."

The irony wasn't lost on either of them. Holly licked her lips and started laughing. Gail, held firmly in position, realized that she wasn't above begging. She also realized her attraction to Holly hadn't waned one bit. In fact right in this moment it felt like it had come back at least twelve-fold. While Gail's brain wanted to talk, her body had no intention of moving. She craved the knowing touch of this woman fairly desperately.

"Oh, so you want to talk now?" Holly moved to hold both of Gail's hands in one of hers, and trailed the free one slowly down the sleeve of Gail's jacket, across her shoulder to firmly grasp her neck. Gail just nodded, as best she could.

Holly interrupted the nod with her lips. Laughing into a surprisingly tender kiss, lightly capturing Gail's bottom lip before flicking her tongue across it.

"Nerd, that was nice, but you're laughing. I'm glad to see you still have a warped sense of humour, really I am. You know I love that but maybe we should have a drink first? Or seventeen -"

"Three things." Holly bit Gail's earlobe.

Gail growled, "What?"

Holly started popping the buttons of Gail's shirt, slowly, with one hand. She looked up and pinned Gail with her eyes.

"You get three questions, Peck. Don't waste them." Holly was down to the last button, she popped it open but made no move to rid Gail of her jacket and shirt. Instead she roughly pulled Gail's lace bra down, freed a breast and started tracing a nipple with the tip of her tongue, never breaking eye contact with Gail.

The words _'Are you fucking serious?'_ almost came tumbling out of her mouth but Gail proudly caught them in time and wildly tried to search for an appropriate starting point in her four years worth of scattered questions.

"Ungh ... why are you back?" She needed to start somewhere.

Holly slipped her leg between Gail's and licked across the blonde's sternum to free the other breast from another lacy cup, her mouth so very close to Gail's nipple, she said, "The university hired me to head up a research team."

Holly bit down just in time to stop Gail from blurting, _'You call that an answer?'_

Gail took a significantly deep breath. This was really not how she'd pictured any kind of reunion. Even in her dreams. Questions were bouncing all around her head but at the same time it was all blank bar Holly's pointed ministrations. Gail felt a sense of urgency to get her answers before the need for them eclipsed what was surely going to be the best orgasm she'd had in years. Or vice versa.

"Ok. Whatever. Are you here to stay?"

Holly's hand was down Gail's pants, she realized with a start. She hadn't even noticed that progression. Holly was slowly pulling Gail's underwear up, twisting it and wedging it between her lips, putting an almost painful pressure on her clit. Almost. Gail sucked in air quietly through her nose and determinedly stood stock still.

Holly searched Gail's eyes for a reaction before relenting, releasing the pressure, slipping under the panties and gently cupping her. Massaging slowly. Gail let out a breath, Holly leaned in and kissed her forehead.

"Yes." She said. Then felt Gail's eyebrows rise, a clever and signature call for elucidation if ever there was one. Holly smiled.

"The university contract is for a specific project. We have another 18 months. It's groundbreaking but I'll spare you the details, for now." Gail's throaty chuckle became a whimper as Holly's fingers reached forward and teased her entrance.

"And Stephen at the ME's office has said there's always space for me there if I ever want to go back."

Holly's hand retreated. The other holding Gail's hands in place pushed them into the door as a gentle reminder not to move before joining its mate in ridding Gail of her pants.

Gail tilted her head back and tried to calm herself. Everything about this was inexorably hot, besides talk of the ME's office. In any case, Holly definitely had a point she'd been intent on making for years. And if nothing else, this memory would serve Gail well on future solo long weekends.

But it wasn't really enough. While it was almost like no time had passed, it had. It had been four years since Gail's love for Holly had spilled out of her. Four years since Holly had said it back.

Holly was on her knees in front of Gail. She put one hand steadily on Gail's stomach and used the other to flip one of Gail's legs over her shoulder. Holly leaned in and devastatingly slowly ran her tongue along the parting of Gail's lips.

Gail groaned as Holly looked up and whispered, "You taste exactly the same."

At that Gail dropped her hands and bunched Holly's hair in her fists. She'd reached her limit, words escaping at volume, blending haphazardly into each other,

"Fuck Holly, do you still need me as much as I need you?"

Holly kissed Gail's inner thigh in a gentle line, looked up and tilted her head.

"I never stopped."

Gail let out a relieved gasp, tears forming in her eyes.

Holly didn't give her any time to recover, entering Gail with her tongue before retreating to trace patterns around her clit.

"I tried really hard, Gail, to forget you."

Gail started panting, she'd had enough talking now and tried to pull Holly's mouth back to where she needed it.

"But it turns out," Holly continued, unfazed, "that you are one very tough woman to leave behind."

Holly moved in to flick Gail's clit gently with her tongue. Gail had no hope of a witty rejoinder.

"So now the price to pay is yours, Peck." Holly leaned to the side, looked up at Gail and smiled as she pushed through the clenching muscles of Gail's entrance with two fingers, curling them. Gail's eyes widened, she reached one hand back to help hold herself up.

It turns out Holly hadn't stopped speaking, "Because as far as I'm concerned," she said, "You're mine."

It seemed to Gail then, that Holly had finally finished with words as her tongue was swiftly everywhere Gail needed it. And her fingers, in a steady motion pulled Gail over the peak she'd been teetering on.

Gail slid down into Holly's lap and kissed her with what little remaining energy she possessed. She rested her head against Holly's shoulder and spoke quietly,

"I guess I deserved that."

"Mmmmhmmm," Holly confirmed, playing with Gail's hands, then smoothing out her hair, kissing her cheeks.

"You know I have a 15-year-old student leader of a daughter, right?" Gail opened her eyes and peered, almost shyly at Holly.

"I can't wait to meet her."

Gail leaned in and with some returning energy, funnelled her gratitude into a kiss.

"You have an answer for everything, don't you nerd?"

Holly looked for a moment like she was seriously considering her answer to that before her thoughts were interrupted by Gail standing up and walking away. She looked delectable, if you'd asked the doctor, slowly climbing the stairs in her skewiff bra, opened shirt and bomber jacket, an all too familiar butt peeking out from underneath.

"You can stop looking and join me now, Holly. I've missed your shower. I think we should christen it...again."

Holly paused before moving, "I thought you wanted to talk?"

No response from Gail, Holly laughed a little at her own joke, stopped to imagine Gail in her shower, let the chuckle die out slowly, then bolted up the stairs after her new, old girlfriend.


End file.
